www.apple.com/ipod/start

Analysts said they still expect Cupertino, California-based Apple to refresh its MacBook notebook PCs soon.

Both Wolf and Hargreaves expect new MacBooks to be announced in the coming weeks, if not on Tuesday.

In July, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said in a statement the company was working on several new products to launch in the coming months, but executives declined to give details.

Apple Inc (AAPL.O) is expected to unveil new iPod music players — and possibly price cuts — at a media event next Tuesday but may not launch a long-awaited update to its MacBook laptop computers until a later date.

Apple, which also makes iPhone mobile devices, e-mailed reporters an invitation to a September 9 event entitled “Let’s Rock,” which has an image of a man jumping in the air while listening to an iPod, with the words “playing soon.”

No further details were available from the company, which often sends provocative invitations to events that end up being product launches. Creating an allure around its brand has only helped drive Apple’s market capitalization above Google Inc (GOOG.O), despite fears about the weak U.S. economy, which is slowing consumer purchases.

“It’s got to be new iPods. That’s 100 percent certain,” Needham & Co analyst Charles Wolf said. “The only question I cannot answer is whether they will also do new MacBooks.”

Apple shares fell $3.34, or 2 percent, to $166.19 on Tuesday.

Pacific Crest Securities analyst Andrew Hargreaves said the stock fall was likely due to bearish broad sentiment, rather than any disappointment related to the invitation. However, he expects any changes to the iPod to be incremental.

“I’m not expecting anything revolutionary,” he said.

Apple’s iPod line needs to be refreshed and the price of its iPod Touch models need to be cut because they have a higher starting price than its iPhone, which includes a mobile phone and other features not included in the device, said American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu.

The Internet-ready iPod touch starts at $299 in the United States, compared with $199 for the iPhone.

“Pricing needs to be adjusted downward toward market conditions. We are in a tougher economy. That’s what makes most sense,” Wu said.

Strong sales growth came after Microsoft cut prices for its game console last month.

Sales of the PSP seem to have slowed ahead of the planned launch on October 16 in Japan of a new model of the portable machine, Enterbrain said.

The new PSP-3000 will come with a built-in microphone and advanced LCD panel that is better suited for use outdoors and offers a shorter response time than the existing machine.

Nintendo will launch a new DS on November 1 that can take pictures and play music, potentially encroaching into the territory of Apple Inc’s iPod and iPhone.

Microsoft sold 53,547 units of the Xbox 360 in the four weeks to September 28, compared with 33,071 units of the PS3, data from Enterbrain showed on Friday.

Nintendo Co Ltd safely maintained its leading position in the Japanese console market, having sold 109,548 units of the Wii during the month.

Although popular in the United States, the Xbox 360 has been struggling to compete with the PS3 and the Wii in Japan, home to both Sony and Nintendo.

In a bid to lift sales, Microsoft on September 11 cut the price of the Xbox 360 Arcade, which comes without a hard disk drive, by 8,000 yen ($76) to 19,800 yen. It also lowered the price of the high-end Elite model by 8,000 yen to 39,800 yen.

Sony sells the PS3 with a 40-gigabyte hard disk drive for 39,980 yen, while Nintendo offers the Wii for 25,000 yen.

The Microsoft console also got a boost from Square Enix Holdings’ popular role-playing game, “Infinite Undiscovery”, launched in Japan on September 11.

In the handheld video game market, Nintendo sold 234,477 units of its DS, compared with 109,274 units of Sony’s PlayStation Portable.